Jane Fonda. Again.

You got to hand it to the Rethugs -- give them a pile of shit, they will make shitmuffins with it. And you get a muffin. And you get a muffin. And YOU get a muffin!

There's this Republican governor of Iowa named Terry Branstad, who was in the Military Police at Fort Bragg a long time ago, when Jane Fonda got arrested -- kind of -- for coming onto the post to hand out leaflets, without permission. In a USA Today story we learn that Rep Peter King (R-Moron) introduced Branstad at the so-called Iowa Freedom Summit by saying he was a hero -- the one who slapped the handcuffs on Hanoi Jane.

Wait for applause.

What apparently was never told to the red-meat-devouring GOP at that meeting, what with all that celebratin' freedom by castrating them some hogs and all, was that Branstad was not the one who actually arrested her. By his own admission to a reporter after the Big Event, "I was the provost marshal's driver."

He did say that he put together a dossier for his boss and that was the basis for denying her permission to come on post. So I guess to Peter King that's the exact the same thing as actually clamping those 100% American steel bracelets on the "red" wrists of that Commie-lovin' Traitor.

I tried to find a contemporary account of this arrest, but I was unable to find anything (if anyone knows of one, please post a link in the comments). But I am pretty sure that she was not actually put into handcuffs. This incident occurred in 1970, before she injudiciously went to Hanoi to become "Hanoi Jane", and she was at that time seen as just another rich and famous dilettante dabbler in the peace movement. She would have been handcuffed only if she tried to resist arrest and fight back. If she had done that, the big story would have been, and would continue to be, about that and not about just her "arrest".

I am willing to bet money ("my next paycheck") that she was just given some kind of a citation and then she left peacefully.

Presumably to catch the next plane  to Hanoi where where she had some POWs to torture, stopping by the San Francisco airport on the way to spit on some Vietnam veterans...

But I digress. As we all know, when it comes to the Rethugs, facts and them are complete strangers -- jeez, they've never even had as much as a One Night Stand. Plus, all you really have to to do is throw out a "Jane Fonda!" to the swarming mouthbreathers on the right and they start salivating like Pavlov's dogs, willing to eat the shit right out of your hand.

As you know, I've posted stuff on Hanoi Jane a few times before and, according to my stats, one of my posts, The Return of Hanoi Jane from November 2010, is still in the monthly top five page views.

The Return of "The Return of 'Hanoi Jane'"

I probably shouldn't look at those stats as much as I do, but one thing interesting popped out at me. The one post, aside from the Sarah Palin fake photo, that seems to get consistent page views on a regular basis is from way back in November 2010, The Return of "Hanoi Jane". In just the last month, this tops the list of hits on this blog, being out in front of the next most popular for the month, Rick Santorum, Communism, and the Separation of Church and State by almost double.

So I guess the title of today's entry is kind of misnomer. There hasn't been a return -- she's been there all the time, marching along with an impressive and consistent number of page views, week in and week out. Why is that?

Is it because among a certain segment of the population, "Jane Fonda" is synonymous with "traitor"? That is true enough, but that doesn't explain the continual popularity of that particular page on this blog, despite the fact that it is now over four years old and there have been only eight comments on it, the latest being from last May.

I did a Google Search for Hanoi Jane Fonda traitor and "The Return of 'Hanoi Jane'" did not come up in the top 100 hits. A lot of sites found in that search do show a visceral rabidly unreasoning hatred of Jane Fonda, though, beyond all rational thought and despite the sites that try to clear the air and examine how many of those "traitor" stories are true. (Depending on your defintion of "treason", pretty much none of them -- see this Snopes account. for example, or this open letter from NAM-POW president and former "guest" of the infamous Hanoi Hilton, Mike McGrath.)

It really remains a mystery to me.

Friendly Reception for Kerry?

Yep, that's the news. A friendly reception for John Kerry in the Senate hearings on his nomination to be Secretary of State.

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that just eight short years ago John Kerry was a communist traitor who sold out his brothers on Vietnam and posed naked on top of Hanoi's Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, in flagrante delicto with Jane Fonda ^{[citation needed]}?

Of course the wingnut media is already all over this like stink on shit. That was predictable -- even expected.

But surely there are still some red-blooded members of the "patriotic" party (aka the Rethugs) left in the Senate who can put a stop to this travesty. But maybe they are not so red-blooded and more red-eyed from their partying down with congressional interns and high-class prostitutes and others of that ilk.

And for that lack of red-bloodedness, may I suggest a vodka, Geritol^tm and tomato juice cocktail, otherwise known as a Tired Bloody Mary...